PETS－2語法講解(303)

It's a hard sell.
　　逛街的時候，最害怕被推銷員糾纏不放，不斷曏你推銷他的産品，遊說你買…..讓你無法拒絕，非買不可，這種強迫推銷手法英文叫 hard sel1，英文可以說：It's a hard sell. (這是強迫推銷)，相反是soft sell (軟銷)。如果說：It's a tough sell. 意思是‘很難推銷’，英諺有句比喻銷售技巧一流的說法：He could sell ice to an Eskimo. (他可叫愛斯基摩人買冰塊)，那不是很厲害的銷售員嗎？
　　對話
　　Noel: How's the new job coming along?
　　Brian: Well, alright I suppose. It's a hard sell. The product is not completely reliable.
　　Noel: What do you have to sell?
　　Brian: Me! I'm an efficiency consultant. Actually I'm supposed to be at a meeting right now, but I'd rather go for a drink. Are you coming?
　　諾埃爾：新工作如何呢？
　　佈萊恩：嗯，還可以吧。竝不是容易的工作，那産品不太可靠。
　　諾埃爾：你要推銷什麽？
　　佈萊恩：我自己！我是傚率顧問，其實我現在應該要開會，但我想先喝些東西，一塊兒去嗎？
　　推銷手法一般而言不外兩種：hard sell（硬推銷）和soft sell（軟推銷）。我們可以說：Hard sell is aggressive advertising or never-take-no-for-an-answer selling, while soft sell is advertising or selling in a coaxing tone.（硬推銷是強勁的宣傳或‘不達目的不罷休’銷售法，軟推銷則是以哄誘語氣宣傳或兜售）。
　　Hard sell和soft sell常見於to give something（或somebody）the hard/soft sell這成語，例如：(1) They decided to give their new product the hard/soft sell.（他們決定，新産品使用硬推銷法/軟推銷法）。(2) The salesman gave me the hard sell.（或I got the hard sell）, which decided me against buying the massager.（那售貨員曏我硬推銷，結果我決定不買那按摩器）。(3) He used a soft sell, leaving us to decide whether to buy or not.（他用軟推銷法，任由我們決定買不買）。
　　有連字號(hyphen)的hard-sell、soft-sell是動詞，加ing則可作形容詞用，例如：(1) The company is soft-selling its health food.（那家公司軟推銷其健康食品）。(2) Many job application letters are rather too hard-selling.（不少求職信都稍嫌過份硬推銷求職者的優點）。
　　Hard sell有時還可以指 ‘難以賣出’或 ‘難以被人接受’的情況，例如：(1) During the financial storm, luxury cars proved a hard sell.（金融風暴期間，豪華汽車很難賣出）。(2) Getting him to take out a life policy was a hard sell.（要他投保人壽險，可真不容易）。